1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to radio telecommunication systems and, more particularly, to a mapping function and method of transmitting Signaling System 7 (SS7) telecommunications messages over data networks.
2. Description of Related Art
In existing radio telecommunications networks, there is sometimes a requirement to carry a large amount of data from one node in the network to another. For example, in a network in which there is a primary home location register (HLR) and a backup HLR, the primary HLR may lose its data. The data must then be transferred from the backup HLR to the primary HLR to restore the primary data. The data is sent as SS7 messages utilizing the SS7 Message Transfer Protocol (MTP) which, in the prior art, may be carried either by the SS7 signaling network, or according to Telecommunication Industry Association (TIA) specification, by an X.25 data link network. The transfer of this much data, however, puts a large load on the X.25 data link network, and if the SS7 signaling network is utilized for the transfer, the operator incurrs increased cost, and there is less signaling bandwidth available for call-related SS7 signaling. Therefore, an alternate way to transfer the data from the backup HLR to the primary HLR is needed.
Although there are no known prior art teachings of a solution to the aforementioned deficiency and shortcoming such as that disclosed herein, U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,237 to Shinohara et al. (Shinohara) and PCT Patent Application WO 96/00468 by Galloway (Galloway) discuss subject matter that bears some relation to matters discussed herein. Shinohara discloses a data network system comprising a plurality of local area networks (LANs) connected to an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) via a plurality of routers. The routers are each capable of automatically creating a table for storing routing information. The invention in Shinohara relates strictly to data communication networks, and provides each router with routing address information relating to all the other routers in the data network system. Shinohara does not teach or suggest a method of mapping signaling messages in the SS7 Signaling Connection Control Part (SCCP) protocol to data messages in the IP protocol.
Galloway discloses a lightweight transport protocol which tunnels point-to-point protocol (PPP) data packets between one or more source nodes and a gateway node through an imperfect mesh network (IMN) without requiring the exchange of acknowledgement packets. The gateway node is in a network employing the IP protocol. The invention in Galloway relates strictly to data communication networks, and recognizes that acknowledgement packets are not required at the IP layer when data transport protocols at higher levels utilize acknowledgement packets to assure reliable communications. Galloway does not teach or suggest a method of mapping signaling messages in the SS7 SCCP protocol to data messages in the IP protocol.
Review of each of the foregoing references reveals no disclosure or suggestion of a system or method such as that described and claimed herein. It would be advantageous, therefore, to have a mapping function for mapping signaling messages in the SS7 SCCP protocol to data messages in the IP protocol. The present invention provides such a mapping function and method.